Liebster Award Revisited

I went to my  blog, you know, this one. The one you’re reading right now. The one I don’t get to on a regular basis because I’ve been so busy lately. I saw a second comment on the same post from a good dear friend. I got the hint. She hadn’t seen me around and was wanting me to check in, so I did, at her blog.

She’s pretty cool about that. She cares for a great many people. Paying it forward in thankfulness that she still has a life after all she’s been through. Spreading the daily thoughts as if they came from Fairies when I know she has changed her own life from thinking this way and is sharing it with the people she loves in hopes that we, I, can change my life for the better, if I ever need to.

She did this Award Thing called the Liebster Award. She answers questions someone asked of her, then she asks questions and we are asked to answer them. I guess it makes for some interesting reading and personal insights to other people here in Bloglandia.

Well, I was chosen to answer her questions. I’m not sure if she picked me because she thought I would answer them and was curious about how I would answer them, or if she thought I’d like to do it and there would be a good chance that I would actually do it. (There is also the idea that she chose me to irritate me) Doesn’t matter. When Mel asks, or even suggests, anything, I jump into action. That’s how much respect I have for her.

Here’s a link so you can go check out her blog: Mel's Dream

Below are the questions she asked with the answers I provided from my own thoughts and life experiences. I will not ask anyone any questions, but everyone should feel free to answer the ones Mel suggested and post them somewhere. I’d like to hear your answers. Incidently, she gave me an award for doing this. It was soooo worth it!

How do you celebrate your favorite holiday?

My favorite holiday is Los Dias de Los Muertos, the Days of the Dead. It falls on November first and second each year. I throw a party and invite everyone, friend and stranger alike. I cook food, from appetizer and main dish to dessert and ask people to bring a dish to pass. We honor and remember the lives of the loved ones we have lost to this world. We laugh, cry and eat our way through the day and night.

What unique tradition have you developed in your family (past or present)?

We have many things that we do over and over and have done since we met 43 years ago. We call these things traditions. Some involve a certain food served at a holiday gathering and some are gestures or comments made to each other if a word is said or a question is asked. I guess a fun one that we do is this: Our wedding anniversary is October 9th. On October 9th every year, I wake up my spousal unit by singing Happy Anniversary to her. Using the melody from the first lines of the William Tell Overture, I sing it over and over, changing the key after each stanza and go up and do this until she is begging me to stop.

What's on your nightstand by your side of the bed?

I don’t have a nightstand. I have this cubical shelf that sits sideways. My daily line up of medications sit on the top along with the pill cases I fill once per week. In the cubicles below are some books I intend to read, or finish reading, some day, and some old files of stuff I just can’t throw away.

How many tries does it take you before you actually thread a needle?

So many that I never counted how many times I tried, but rather how many minutes it takes me to accomplish the task. By the way, it takes me a long long time.

One quirky thing you embrace as uniquely YOU?

This one is hard. I have quite a few quirks that I know about and that I have never shared with anyone. I don’t know of anyone else that gets a song melody in their head, then sings it using the alphabet to see if it ends up on “Z”. I use multiple syllables for the letter “W”)

A worry that paralyzed you, then or now?

Then: everything Now: Everything else. I worry, or at least I am anxious about most everything most of the time. This malady seems to accompany PTSD, and I have experienced much trauma through the years.

Which parent can YOU hear when you say something today?

My dad. I am built like him physically and have the same diseases that he had when he was the age I am now. I can actually ‘see’ him talking and remember things, then, I will be in a similar situation and realize that I act like him and say the same things in the same way as he did.

When do you consider it 'late at night'?

Late at night are the hours between 1:00 AM and 5:00 AM, especially if I am awake.

How do you respond when someone hurts your feelings?

I want to get in my car and leave, and I have done so many times in the past. I am a bit more grounded now and don’t get on the road at the drop of a hat, but still think about how it would be if I just left it all behind.

What are two staples you can't run out of? And (LORD help us all....) what happens if you DO run out of them?

I have no particular items that I need to keep stocked up, but if I run out of something I am looking for at any particular moment, I bitch and complain. I might have even blamed another person-who-shall-remain-nameless for running out of said item.

And finally--WHO do you need to say "I love you" to, today.....go do that and report back!

I’m sure there is someone that needs this or someone I want to tell, and there are those that I wish I’d hear it from, but most every day, I say I love you to my Grandkids and my wife as well as my daughters if I happen to talk with them. They say this back to me too. Sometimes, they initiate the I Love You, then I say it back.

Thanks for including me Mel. You are one of a kind, a gem amongst stones.

Peace to All